[04/07] New Lightning Returns trailer..say hello to an old friend

[.Mosh]

[04/07] New Lightning Returns trailer/Demo Say hell to an old friend

A new trailer for Lightning returns came out today called 'The Divine Task', the trailer itself shows existing footage from past trailers and some new scenes as well for your enjoyment.​

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The biggest news is that Fang is returning to the game, even though she was briefly shown there is no information in regards to the role she will play in this new tale (Sorry for the small image...print screened from youtube and when you click it goes proper size).

We also get another look at different costumes whilst in combat and a brief showing of a new location (The building that looks like its floating)

The game comes out February which is around 7 months away....a lot of polish to go it seems and I have faith it will at least be the most 'Interesting' of the FFXIII series of games.

 

[Master Cat]

Wow. Seems like Lightning is supposed to be like some sort of Jesus figure. Think about it. "Lightning Returns." In the beginning of the trailer, she says that she became a "savior." When Lumina starts talking, she states that Lightning has to save everyone that she can. Also, I believe the premise of the plot is that Lightning only has a few days to "save the world." And to some extent, you can consider Snow a sort of Judas figure as he "betrays" Lightning and goes against her.

Anyone see where I'm going with this? xD Or is it a bit of a stretch?

 

[.Mosh]

Wow. Seems like Lightning is supposed to be like some sort of Jesus figure. Think about it. "Lightning Returns." In the beginning of the trailer, she says that she became a "savior." When Lumina starts talking, she states that Lightning has to save everyone that she can. Also, I believe the premise of the plot is that Lightning only has a few days to "save the world." And to some extent, you can consider Snow a sort of Judas figure as he "betrays" Lightning and goes against her.

Anyone see where I'm going with this? xD Or is it a bit of a stretch?

I think that is creepy because you read my mind...this is what I have been thinking they would be taking this concept haha. I have a feeling that this game is going to be good in its own way (It might be more successful if it didn't have final fantasy in the title) But I liked FFXIII & FFXIII-2 so I am happy to buy this day one to finish the trilogy and wait now for FFXV. I don't mind lightning, I think she is alright....a slight bit monotone and two dimensional at times but she is alright...the gameplay looks alright...to whoever moans at graphics....you love the past games and obviously they look bad to nowadays standards (It is the gameplay and if thats fun I can forgive the visuals...it has a unique style too)

My only complaint is that there have been too many trailers considering the release is a while away...here is hoping for some good stuff announced around TGS time.

 

[.Mosh]

Breaking News from Japan Expo 2013!​

Even more news comes from the Japan Expo! They have a 12 minute gameplay demo which shows off Lightning in the desert terrain! Please note that the audio is from a live demo demonstration. Personally it looks more interesting than what was shown in the trailer!

You can see it below:

 

[Linnaete]

I have to say, this is looking exceptionally great for a PS2 game. I didn't even know they were making the-

to whoever moans at graphics....you love the past games and obviously they look bad to nowadays standards

-the previous games were able to push the hardware they were on. FFIX was presumably as graphically and technically advanced as the PS1 hardware could handle for that sort of game, and likewise, so was FFXII for the PS2. They were in contemporary terms, as technically polished as they could be. This game? It's B-tier at best, if I were to be generous. It's hardly fitting as the last offline FF title to end a generation.

Valkyrie Profile: Lightning is just highlighting how awful Crystal Tools as an engine is, if it can only handle small areas and corridors, but stumbles harder than an octogenarian man with a broken leg trying to climb up a steep rocky slope when it attempts to handle larger areas. It currently looks all over the place, and it carries with it the baggage of Toriyama comically declaring the game will be the "most complete and polished game in the Final Fantasy series". Sorry, but I am not letting that statement go.

And someone, deciding to have a gander at Fang's thighs, found this amusing bit of clipping:

If the aesthetic direction is good enough to gloss over how rough and mashed-together this game looks, then fine, but I find nothing likeable about any of the areas shown so far except maybe Yusnaan (not the palace. The town itself). Heck, many screenshots so far almost give me the impression that someone produced a FFXIII character models mod for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or something.

But don't take this post as a hypocritical whinge about graphics as if it ruins a game when I lambasted FFXIII for being style and no substance. It's an observation of what I've seen from the trailer. I'm hardly going to be horrified at the leg clipping when I actually play the game, for one. But aesthetically as a whole, it just looks piss poor for a game in 2013/4.

-----------

I hope Alex O'Smith is brought back sometime to do translation work. I miss his work, because the script in these games simply haven't been very good. Average in some places for your run-of-the-mill B-tier JRPG, awful in some other places. It doesn't seem to sound better in Valkyrie Profile: Lightning, and I'm beginning to put a lot more blame on the script than the voice actors' delivery of their lines.

"One day, the Light touched me. I knew what it was. It was God himself, speaking to me..." -___-

Gone is the moniker "Maker", and now it's simply "God". Not a god. The lack of an article to go with the noun implies that it's simply THE God. And he's tasked Lightning with the salvation of mankind by [looks at end of trailer]...killing people? Mass murder? Nabbing their souls and "liberating" them? I...wha-? She's following an order by God to "free souls", when in the first game, the whole theme - sans the stupid final boss and ending scenarios - at least had the identifiable theme of defying both fate and "false Gods". What, only because Etro and "God" aren't demigods, means it's totally alright to be their vassal, now? You damn well question yourself whether you're even human anymore, because without any proper exploration of this sinister "Saviour" theme, it's gone full circle. Remember in FFXIII when Lightning wanted to stroll into Eden and start slayin'?

Fang returning as bandit leader makes fuck all sense. But so does Hope being a kid again. As well as the in-universe explanation for why the pseudonym "Lightning" is still being used by her AND Serah when we all established that it's nonsense. And Chocolina being the same Chocobo chick that hangs around with Sazh because...paradox? Hell, may as well just keep going from here. Reveal that Vanille, the pathological liar in the first game, is actually a TOTAL pathological liar, and not for innocent reasons, because she's actually the final boss, and true main antagonist of the whole trilogy.

And Lumina's voice actress is definitely not Laura Bailey. Sounds just like Yeul's. It's Yeul's voice without the dull, monotone drone, but a Yeul with a kawaii cutesy girl voice.

 

[.Mosh]

I have to say, this is looking exceptionally great for a PS2 game. I didn't even know they were making the-



-the previous games were able to push the hardware they were on. FFIX was presumably as graphically and technically advanced as the PS1 hardware could handle for that sort of game, and likewise, so was FFXII for the PS2. They were in contemporary terms, as technically polished as they could be. This game? It's B-tier at best, if I were to be generous. It's hardly fitting as the last offline FF title to end a generation.

Valkyrie Profile: Lightning is just highlighting how awful Crystal Tools as an engine is, if it can only handle small areas and corridors, but stumbles harder than an octogenarian man with a broken leg trying to climb up a steep rocky slope when it attempts to handle larger areas. It currently looks all over the place, and it carries with it the baggage of Toriyama comically declaring the game will be the "most complete and polished game in the Final Fantasy series". Sorry, but I am not letting that statement go. .

I didn't mean for it to be read as if cause the past is bad, anything that looks bad is still miles better. I do agree about the statement of this was meant to be the most polished in the Final Fantasy series. Without a doubt it doesn't look that way heck FFXIII the first in this new trilogy looks a lot better and I believe it is down to the development time it had. I just think S-E can't churn out games fast anymore and I also blame the Crystal tools engine because it wasn't designed for the games they were wanting to build. I mean if you look at FFXV the difference is mind boggling, crisp textures and resolutions and even open world fighting (not like FFXIII fades into a new zone) I think they have made an engine that will do what they want it to do.

I still go by my statement in that they are releasing trailers well to quickly...I mean for all we know that clipping you found might be altered in some way in the coming 7 months til release. Playing FF14 in the beta and noticing the amount of polish in that was great to see. I just feel it is to early to tell anything just yet, if this were 3 months or less to go then I would be a bit confused how this is slipping past.

 

[Steve-O]

crystal tools sucks, it blows up the second more than 2 high ploy things enter the area...... at least hair is nice in it

anyway, anybody else as confused as the man next door about Fang being in the game. Cuz if I remember (don't click the spoiler if you not finished FFXIII)

Spoiler

still stuck in the crystal?

 

[Sheechiibii]

I am totally confused about this game. I have zero clue on what it's even about. At first it seemed like the plot was going to be Lightning trying to save Serah, then it seemed like Lightning would be saving these people with black hearts or something (Noel/Snow/whoever else) now she's a taxi for dead souls? What is this game actually going to be about? For goodness sakes. And it's just getting more and more confusing. Hope is a child again? Fang is no longer in the crystal? WTF?!

 

[Starships]

Wow. Seems like Lightning is supposed to be like some sort of Jesus figure. Think about it. "Lightning Returns." In the beginning of the trailer, she says that she became a "savior." When Lumina starts talking, she states that Lightning has to save everyone that she can. Also, I believe the premise of the plot is that Lightning only has a few days to "save the world." And to some extent, you can consider Snow a sort of Judas figure as he "betrays" Lightning and goes against her.

Anyone see where I'm going with this? xD Or is it a bit of a stretch?

This so much. This wouldn't be surprising if Square-Enix did this or are planning this with LR since they basically see Lightning as their Waifu.

​

 

[Rey]

I have to say, this is looking exceptionally great for a PS2 game.

-the previous games were able to push the hardware they were on. FFIX was presumably as graphically and technically advanced as the PS1 hardware could handle for that sort of game, and likewise, so was FFXII for the PS2. They were in contemporary terms, as technically polished as they could be. This game? It's B-tier at best, if I were to be generous. It's hardly fitting as the last offline FF title to end a generation.

Valkyrie Profile: Lightning is just highlighting how awful Crystal Tools as an engine is, if it can only handle small areas and corridors, but stumbles harder than an octogenarian man with a broken leg trying to climb up a steep rocky slope when it attempts to handle larger areas. It currently looks all over the place, and it carries with it the baggage of Toriyama comically declaring the game will be the "most complete and polished game in the Final Fantasy series". Sorry, but I am not letting that statement go.

But don't take this post as a hypocritical whinge about graphics as if it ruins a game when I lambasted FFXIII for being style and no substance. It's an observation of what I've seen from the trailer. I'm hardly going to be horrified at the leg clipping when I actually play the game, for one. But aesthetically as a whole, it just looks piss poor for a game in 2013/4.

-----------

"One day, the Light touched me. I knew what it was. It was God himself, speaking to me..." -___-

Gone is the moniker "Maker", and now it's simply "God". Not a god. The lack of an article to go with the noun implies that it's simply THE God. And he's tasked Lightning with the salvation of mankind by [looks at end of trailer]...killing people? Mass murder? Nabbing their souls and "liberating" them? I...wha-? She's following an order by God to "free souls", when in the first game, the whole theme - sans the stupid final boss and ending scenarios - at least had the identifiable theme of defying both fate and "false Gods". What, only because Etro and "God" aren't demigods, means it's totally alright to be their vassal, now? You damn well question yourself whether you're even human anymore, because without any proper exploration of this sinister "Saviour" theme, it's gone full circle. Remember in FFXIII when Lightning wanted to stroll into Eden and start slayin'?


And Lumina's voice actress is definitely not Laura Bailey. Sounds just like Yeul's. It's Yeul's voice without the dull, monotone drone, but a Yeul with a kawaii cutesy girl voice.

Jesus christ..... I do not even know where to start. The graphics are not even that bad. Have you ever thought they might just be placeholder? I think that was what everybody was getting at with the first trailer. You dont even know if the graphics are "bad" till the final product comes out. If the graphics end up staying the same, I will not lose any sleep over them. It would be best if you keep your "judgement" on the graphics for when the game actually releases. Most complete and polished game in the whole series? I knew that was a joke from the very beginning. Only a huge FF XIII fan would believe that.

1) You will never play the game

2) I dont even think you care for it.

Ps2 graphics? What in the world? It looks nothing like a ps2 game.

When you think about it..... Using the same Fang model actually really makes sense. How would she magically change clothes after being broken out of crystal stasis? I do not even blame them for not giving her a new outfit. I would not even call it FF XIII mods like you say they are. Bhunivelze is the leader of the gods. I see no problem with him being adressed as God... considering he is the leader. She questions herself because Bhunivelze made her extremely powerful. Heh, Toriyama even said she is more powerful now.

On the topic of liberation of souls.... Lightning is being tasked to set people free of the Chaos within them and guide them to a "new world" which Bhunivelze believes is true salvation for Lightning and the people. She is not "killing people" It is a little messy when you think about it. This is why I think Bhunivelze is actually tricking Lightning. I mean... where else would Lumina come into play?

Lightning is not the first "liberator" Lumina does say Lightning is different and only she is able to see Lumina. Lightning being chosen may be something false towards the end of the game. It makes sense when you think about it. Noel now believes Lightning is a villain due to the oracle drive. This game has a plot, trust me.

Fang? Why is everybody so freaked out about Fang coming back?

Spoiler

She was rescued along with Vanille at the end of XIII-2 by Sazh and Hope. They broke out of crystal stasis(presumably) This is something that needs to make sense in LR and be told at a certain point. I would not even mind if datalogs gave away how.

It makes sense for Fang to prefer living in the dead dunes since Oerba was mostly all sand. I am curious if Vanille will make an appearance as well. Who is Adonis though? Why does he speak in Australian like Vanille and Fang? A former resident of Oerba maybe?

I am totally confused about this game. I have zero clue on what it's even about. At first it seemed like the plot was going to be Lightning trying to save Serah, then it seemed like Lightning would be saving these people with black hearts or something (Noel/Snow/whoever else) now she's a taxi for dead souls? What is this game actually going to be about? For goodness sakes. And it's just getting more and more confusing. Hope is a child again? Fang is no longer in the crystal? WTF?!

Hope as a child is the only thing I am confused about. The game makes sense to me so far. The game is going to be about Lightning becoming super powerful to prevent the world from being destroyed by the big bad. Kind of like every FF game.

 

[Razberry Knight]

Jesus christ..... I do not even know where to start. The graphics are not even that bad. Have you ever thought they might just be placeholder? I think that was what everybody was getting at with the first trailer. You dont even know if the graphics are "bad" till the final product comes out. If the graphics end up staying the same, I will not lose any sleep over them. It would be best if you keep your "judgement" on the graphics for when the game actually releases. Most complete and polished game in the whole series? I knew that was a joke from the very beginning. Only a huge FF XIII fan would believe that.

1) You will never play the game

2) I dont even think you care for it.

Ps2 graphics? What in the world? It looks nothing like a ps2 game.

When you think about it..... Using the same Fang model actually really makes sense. How would she magically change clothes after being broken out of crystal stasis? I do not even blame them for not giving her a new outfit. I would not even call it FF XIII mods like you say they are. Bhunivelze is the leader of the gods. I see no problem with him being adressed as God... considering he is the leader. She questions herself because Bhunivelze made her extremely powerful. Heh, Toriyama even said she is more powerful now.

On the topic of liberation of souls.... Lightning is being tasked to set people free of the Chaos within them and guide them to a "new world" which Bhunivelze believes is true salvation for Lightning and the people. She is not "killing people" It is a little messy when you think about it. This is why I think Bhunivelze is actually tricking Lightning. I mean... where else would Lumina come into play?

Lightning is not the first "liberator" Lumina does say Lightning is different and only she is able to see Lumina. Lightning being chosen may be something false towards the end of the game. It makes sense when you think about it. Noel now believes Lightning is a villain due to the oracle drive. This game has a plot, trust me.

Fang? Why is everybody so freaked out about Fang coming back?

Spoiler

She was rescued along with Vanille at the end of XIII-2 by Sazh and Hope. They broke out of crystal stasis(presumably) This is something that needs to make sense in LR and be told at a certain point. I would not even mind if datalogs gave away how.

It makes sense for Fang to prefer living in the dead dunes since Oerba was mostly all sand. I am curious if Vanille will make an appearance as well. Who is Adonis though? Why does he speak in Australian like Vanille and Fang? A former resident of Oerba maybe?






Hope as a child is the only thing I am confused about. The game makes sense to me so far. The game is going to be about Lightning becoming super powerful to prevent the world from being destroyed by the big bad. Kind of like every FF game.

If what toriyama says is a joke, then he is dissing his own series. In the past he said what made xiii unique was that it was a trilogy. In later posts he said how "cool" lightning has gotten. Even as a joke, that shows extreme shallowness of toriyama

 

[AuronX]

(Sorry for the small image...print screened from youtube and when you click it goes proper size)

Double click on it and you can set it to display in small, medium, large, or full-size

Anyone see where I'm going with this? xD Or is it a bit of a stretch?

Both

I mean I thought the same thing with the trailer--the parallels were pretty obvious--but it's a stretch for the story. It doesn't fit with XIII, it doesn't fit with XIII-2. Trust me, I'm a writer, I know how this goes. You start off on a good note, so you want to continue the story. Ok, fine, it works for a little while. But then things start to get tangled up. Then what do you do? Simple! Escalate ALL the things! Raise the stakes ("the world is going to vanish in a few days if you don't stop it") and deal in absurd absolutes (like "even God can't defeat him") to try and bring back some semblance of gravitas where there is none.

Why did XIII-2 work even though its story was so different from XIII? Because it wove its storyline with character development. Serah had to learn to fight, and along the way her relationship with Noel develops. That makes us come to care about Noel, and so when we start to learn his backstory we feel his pain. And now that we care about both characters, we also care about their goal: to find Lightning and stop Caius. Several of the new story elements (artifacts, for example) felt a little contrived, but it didn't matter in the face of the backstory and the characters and their goals.

But Lightning Returns lacks those redeeming qualities. It's all so unnatural and contrived that there's nothing left to give the game any weight. The extremes and absolutes I mentioned before come across as hyperbole. Very little about the story makes enough sense to provide a natural sense of flow from one thing to the next. That prevents the characters from being able to be taken seriously, so we don't care about their backstory or goals. There's no emotional connection. All the costumes only hurt that even more--costume is part of character expression. Lightning's outfits in XIII and XIII-2 expressed very specific things about her. By adding 100 outfits to the mix the devs have added 100 expressions to the mix, very few of which actually fit Lightning's established character. It nullifies the expression of her character completely in a game that is already lacking quality depth.

If I play Lightning Returns and it proves me wrong, I will gladly say so. But at this rate, I'm highly doubting that to be the case.

 

[Master Cat]

Why did XIII-2 work even though its story was so different from XIII? Because it wove its storyline with character development. Serah had to learn to fight, and along the way her relationship with Noel develops. That makes us come to care about Noel, and so when we start to learn his backstory we feel his pain. And now that we care about both characters, we also care about their goal: to find Lightning and stop Caius. Several of the new story elements (artifacts, for example) felt a little contrived, but it didn't matter in the face of the backstory and the characters and their goals.

You're definitely on point with this one. I actually grew very fond of Noel's character as I watched his relationship with Serah develop and I thought he at least had an interesting backstory that meshed with the game's plot pretty well (although one could argue that the plot itself contained many loopholes, lol). I'm a little concerned as to what will become of Noel's character and role in Lightning Returns, since he seems to be going against Lightning. I wouldn't necessarily label him an antagonist from what we know since I kinda feel like his intentions are justified. That's how much I like his character, lol.

On the other hand, Lightning's character had never seemed to have much depth to it - and her more emotional bits in FFXIII seemed artificial at best. I just didn't connect too well with her character. -.-; If she is supposed to be a male version of Cloud, then I would surely grow to like her in the same way, but something about Lightning's persona just doesn't do it for me.

But Lightning Returns lacks those redeeming qualities. It's all so unnatural and contrived that there's nothing left to give the game any weight. The extremes and absolutes I mentioned before come across as hyperbole. Very little about the story makes enough sense to provide a natural sense of flow from one thing to the next. That prevents the characters from being able to be taken seriously, so we don't care about their backstory or goals. There's no emotional connection. All the costumes only hurt that even more--costume is part of character expression. Lightning's outfits in XIII and XIII-2 expressed very specific things about her. By adding 100 outfits to the mix the devs have added 100 expressions to the mix, very few of which actually fit Lightning's established character. It nullifies the expression of her character completely in a game that is already lacking quality depth.

I also agree with what you said about costumes being a part of character expression. I think as players we sometimes take it for granted how comfortable we are seeing characters in their traditional costumes. Sometimes I think it's really neat when characters are able to equip miscellaneous outfits, but only when such costumes fit with the character's personality - although I didn't have any objections with seeing Cloud in his purple dress, lol. But even then, it played a part in the plot, so it was necessary.

For instance, as much as people may dub FFX-2 as the "FF Dress Up" game - 'cause in many ways it was - at least it was well-executed, for the most part. I think the customized designs for each dressphere actually fit each character (with the exception of a few of Paine's more horribly designed costumes, but that's because her body and hair just looked a little too awkward in some get-ups). The majority of these costumes that I see Lightning wearing seem so off for her character, and it's just a little too forced to have her wear 100 plus different costumes in my opinion. Some costumes can be for laughs and giggles I suppose, but it looks like she also changes outfits depending on her "paradigm" (?) in a rather dressphere-like fashion.

Maybe when I see Lightning wear costumes that actually look "natural" on her and don't make me cringe in embarrassment, I will be more receptive of the multiple costumes charade, lol. But in the meantime, it seems a little silly and like more of a distraction from what we fans really would like to know, which is more about the plot and see Lightning become more human. She can have that SOLIDER-mentality, but still show an ounce more of relatedness. Maybe we should get more of a backstory from Lightning? Since the protective older sister persona seems a little inappropriate/irrelevant at this point.

 

[Razberry Knight]

The worldwide sales of ffxiii-2 were sad (and yet SE claims it was xiii-2 along side deus ex that made SE profitable again. But compare the sales of deus ex and xiii-2 and you decide which one actually made SE profitable)

and this was back when xiii was still some what respectable. I can tell this game will not sell well outside Japan and that actually hurts, us, the gamers. Because if SE loses more assets, we won be able to get the games we do want. There needs to be a serious boycott to SE. But im starting to think SE is going to kill themselves very soon

 

[AuronX]

I think as players we sometimes take it for granted how comfortable we are seeing characters in their traditional costumes. Sometimes I think it's really neat when characters are able to equip miscellaneous outfits, but only when such costumes fit with the character's personality - although I didn't have any objections with seeing Cloud in his purple dress, lol. But even then, it played a part in the plot, so it was necessary.

Yeah, I'm not saying characters can only have one outfit. Not at all. In fact I love a well-done character redesign. I loved the transition Lightning had from XIII to XIII-2. In XIII she was a hired gun just trying to protect her sister. The valkyrie armor still fit her character, but it conveyed a warrior fighting for Good instead--a much higher, much deeper, more objective goal. I felt like that reflected the changes Lightning went through in XIII quite nicely. It even reflected her aloofness--the armor definitely says "I've been through some things that make it difficult for me to relate to you". I don't get any of that with the LR outfits I've seen. More like "I got kidnapped and forced to wear this stupid thing"

For instance, as much as people may dub FFX-2 as the "FF Dress Up" game - 'cause in many ways it was - at least it was well-executed, for the most part.

Exactly! Yuna's whole personality was different from X, but in the context of X-2 the dress spheres worked fine. Like you said, a few were pretty awkward on characters they didn't go well with, but so far I'd say X-2 was done better than LR in this regard.

Maybe when I see Lightning wear costumes that actually look "natural" on her and don't make me cringe in embarrassment, I will be more receptive of the multiple costumes charade, lol

Honestly, the Cloud costume is the only one I've seen so far that fits that description in my book. And no way am I preordering the game in the hopes that that one outfit will fix things for me

 

[Tyler Breeze]

*sees Fang* ... Ohai. Anyway, the graphics don't bother me much, honestly. I'm still playing all these ancient PS1/N64 games, so to me, these look incredible. Admittedly, the graphics in WWE 2K14 look better than these, and that game is literally a copy and paste of last years game. Mehh... Fang is back. Yay.

 

[Razberry Knight]

*sees Fang* ... Ohai. Anyway, the graphics don't bother me much, honestly. I'm still playing all these ancient PS1/N64 games, so to me, these look incredible. Admittedly, the graphics in WWE 2K14 look better than these, and that game is literally a copy and paste of last years game. Mehh... Fang is back. Yay.

I admit Fang may be the only redeeming factor of this game. Despite making little sense..but not the greatest factor of the game....this game suggest time warp among the characters or so. But then again these characters look slightly different (hopes face looks much more mature than in XIII)

in XIII has this never ending cycle of gods granting abilities to humans and somehow humans surpass them. Throughout this entire series.